nearly two years after the remnants of hurricane Ida swept through New Jersey many survivors are still rebuilding and struggling financially they urged lawmakers today to pass a bill providing mortgage relief to help ease the pressure Ted Goldberg was in Trenton where homeowners testified about the grueling road to build back after a storm survivors of hurricane Ida say getting a break on their mortgage would be a godsend and that could happen thanks to a new bill in the state senate the bank is already coming after me for a foreclosure because I refuse to pay mortgage on a house that I don't live in so I've been trying to work with the bank but you know they don't have any before they don't have there's no forbearance bill right now so I don't have any protection against them taking my house if I forbearance it would have given me the breathing space to just do what we needed to do to get back into the home sooner and to finish the home sooner Leanna Jones lives in Milford and vividly remembers when remnants of hurricane Ida caused chaos in New Jersey and seriously damaged her home after her children's first day of school they actually had a really good first day and then we started getting flash flood warnings even though I reassured them before I knew it I could see that we couldn't get out in our car and we had to be evacuated the Joneses stayed with family for four months moving back in once power and heat were restored they still couldn't use their laundry room and could only cook with a microwave some of our clothes were ruined some of their books and backpacks and everything that we didn't think to like pick up off the floor because I didn't think that anything would get onto our ground floor what happened next is a familiar story to anyone who's dealt with damage after Ida Sandy or any of the other deadly storms that have hit New Jersey I had flood insurance so I thought like okay this will be all right but um they didn't give us enough FEMA wouldn't give me anything because I was still talking to insurance she still had to pay her mortgage and so did Eric Vaughn even though his home was unlivable forcing him to move into an RV in his driveway with his young children it's not fair I mean the more the the RV payment is a lot less than a rent so I mean that's kind of one of the reasons why I did as well and at the time there was nothing available because everybody was looking for a rental after item item because nobody people lost their homes Senate Bill 3640 would Grant mortgage forbearance to cash strapped homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage as of now homeowners could get a reprieve on payments for up to a year and a half and it would start retroactively to when Ida hit in September of 2021 as for what the banks think a spokesperson with the New Jersey Bankers Association says they don't oppose the bill entirely just the year and a half long period for certain homeowners we feel that one year is largely appropriate and reasonable and should any subsequent forbearance be provided we feel that there should be certain qualifiers and conditions in place before the automatic allowance of the 180 days the bill unanimously passed through the community and urban Affairs committee an identical bill is in the State Assembly committee so struggling homeowners might have to wait a bit longer for that forbearance to take effect in Trenton I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news